


One Winter's Day

by garlic8reath



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Gohan treating his alien friends to all the good things in life, Other, Snow Day, agender aliens, wee baby crushes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 03:10:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13755024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/garlic8reath/pseuds/garlic8reath
Summary: Gohan decides to treat Dende and Cargo to something they'd never experienced on Namek-- a day out playing in the snow.





	One Winter's Day

**Author's Note:**

> One time period I wish we had gotten some slice-of-life episodes about was the year that the Namekians spent living at Capsule Corp. I especially love Gohan and Dende's friendship, and wish we had gotten some scenes of Gohan showing them cool Earth stuff, which is where the idea for this fic comes from. I have more ideas for scenarios in set in this time period, one of which is hinted at in this fic. Hopefully I can actually bully myself into writing for these ideas!
> 
> The Dende/Gohan in this fic is all extremely baby's first crush territory, and there's not a whole lot of it.
> 
> The Namekians in this fic are referred to with they/them pronouns, since they are a monoecious species that never developed "gender" as a class system. I've also invented a Namekian honorific term, similar to Mr./Mrs. or -san, used several times in this fic: Lim (pronounced "leem")

Pale winter sunlight peeked through a blanket of clouds over a shallow, secluded, snow-covered valley. Over one of the ridges cradling the valley soared three small alien children-- Gohan, a half-Saiyan, carried a squirming, tiny Namekian, Cargo, too young yet to fly, and Cargo's elder sibling, Dende trailed just slightly behind Gohan. The whooshing of their Ki-powered flight rustled the treetops as the trio banked lower, sending flocks of small birds aloft, chattering in disturbance. Gohan slowed his flight, and landed gently in an open field beyond the trees.

"Well, here we are, you guys. Sorry we had to fly so far out; they don't really get snow at Capsule Corp, and it still hasn't snowed this year at my house. What do you think?" Gohan said.

Dende looked about cautiously from where they were floating beside Gohan, but made no motion to land.

"It's um... We didn't have _anything_ like this back on Namek." Dende said hesitantly.

"It's weird! Everything's all white and fuzzy! What is it?!" Cargo said, wriggling in Gohan's arms.

Gohan set Cargo down, and they began slowly shifting from one leg to the other in exaggeratedly high steps, the snow crunching underneath every time they set a foot down. Dende, watching this, twitched their ears in unease, and looked back towards Gohan for guidance.

"Oh! Dende, there's nothing to be afraid of, it's just frozen water. Whenever it gets really cold, rain sometimes freezes into these tiny, flat crystals, and they drift down and cover everything; that's what snow is! I should have showed you some pictures before we came out here, sorry!" Gohan reached down, scooping up a handful of snow in his gloved hand, and held it up to Dende's face. "See? It's safe. It's just... Fluffy frozen water."

Dende looked at the snow in Gohan's hand for a moment, then slowly lowered themself to the ground. Their eyes went wide in shock for a split second before their face screwed up in the strongest cringe Gohan had ever seen, their ears pinned back and even their antennae seemed to retract. A full-body shiver passed through Dende, and they rose to hover again above the snow.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry, Dende! Is it too cold? Mr. Piccolo never seemed to mind the cold so I thought that-- I'm sorry!" Gohan exclaimed.

"It's alright, Gohan. I'm fine. I just... I'd rather not touch it again..." Dende said.

"If this isn't fun, we can go home and do something else! The snow isn't important, I just wanted to show you guys something new, and have fun today!"

"No, it's fine Gohan. I do think it's pretty, we can still--"

Dende was cut off by a loud peal of laughter from Cargo, who had stopped stepping in place. Suddenly, they bolted across the field, frolicking and giggling as they left big, looping trails in the snow. Their outburst was brought to a halt as they tripped over their own stubby legs, landing on their face with a "whoomph" and a flurry of disturbed snow.

"Cargo! Are you alright?" Dende called, and both they and Gohan hurried over to where Cargo lay.

Cargo stood back up, breathless, and shook themself to dislodge the snow from their purple-flushed face.

"Hah. Hah! It's weird! It's weird!" Cargo cackled, jumping up and down.

"If Cargo's having fun, then I don't mind staying for a while." Dende said, watching Cargo in amusement.

"Are you sure? Let me know if it's too much, and we'll go home." Gohan said. "I wasn't thinking; I should have brought snow gear for you guys, so you could play without getting cold and wet..."

Dende eyed Gohan's attire thoughtfully.

"Gohan, may I see your, ah..." Dende took Gohan's gloved hands in their own. "These."

"Oh, of course!" Gohan said, slipping off his gloves and handing them to Dende.

Dende turned the gloves over in their hands, feeling the material between their fingers, and tracing the patterns of the knitting. Their brow crinkled in focus, and their hands began to glow softly. With a small "poof", a second pair of gloves materialized in Dende's hands, four-fingered but otherwise identical to Gohan's.

"I always forget you guys can do that." Gohan said, taking his gloves back. "Do you want to do that with my hat or scarf? Or my boots even?"

Dende shook their head as they slipped on their new gloves.

"I'll just make my shoes thicker, and I think I'll be fine. It's not the temperature that's bad, it's the..." Dende scrunched their face up again, recalling the sensation of the snow beneath their feet. "Touching. It feels..."

"Weird!" Cargo shouted, from where they were now rolling around on their back, caked with snow.

"Yes. Weird. But I should be fine now."

"Great!" Gohan smiled. "Because there's a lot of cool things you can do in the snow that I want to show you!"

Gohan scooped up some snow in his hands, and compacted it into a neat little ball. He began packing more snow onto it until the ball was a little smaller than his head, then he placed it on the ground. Dende watched with interest, and Cargo sat up to watch as Gohan rolled the snowball across the field, the snowball growing in size as Gohan pushed it. Gohan stopped when the snowball was almost as tall as he was, and looked back at Dende and Cargo.

"Guys! This is the first step for making a snowman!" He called, patting the snowball.

"What's a man?" Cargo asked, looking up at Dende.

"How are we going to make a... Man... Out of snow? I cannot create life with my magic..." Dende said skeptically.

Gohan giggled.

"We're not using magic! It's like a sculpture, we're making a sculpture of a person out of snow, you'll see! We need two more big snowballs first, come help me!" He said.

Dende and Cargo followed Gohan's lead as he started making a second snowball, both helping him to push it around the field until it was slightly smaller than the first. Gohan picked up the finished snowball and floated up to stack it atop the first, patting it down so it would stick. When it came time to create the third snowball, Cargo insisted they be the one to start it, and they clumsily formed a lumpy snowball in their tiny green hands. By the time Cargo's snowball was fully rolled out and stacked into place, it was only a little less round than the others had been.

"Hmm, now who should we have this snowman be..." Gohan said, rifling through his backpack. "Maybe we should make Krillin, since he couldn't come with us?"

Dende cocked their head to the side, not following. They still didn't see how this stack of snowballs could resemble any sort of person, alien or not. At their feet, Cargo had sat back down and was busying themself making a pile of misshapen snowballs.

"I wish Lim Krillin was here too, I miss him. You said he was busy?" Dende said.

"Yeah... He said he had work, and other Adult Stuff. But if we have the snowman be him, we can just pretend he's here!" Gohan said.

Gohan floated up to the head of the snowman, and pushed several small stones into the snowball in the arrangement of a smiling face. He then poked six divots above the eyes, similar to Krillin's incense burns.

"See? Krillin's super easy to make, too, since he doesn't have hair or a nose!" He said.

"I see now! How fun!" Dende said. "Though..."

"What is it?"

Dende smiled mischievously.

"It's pretty tall to be Lim Krillin..." they said.

"That's true... Maybe we should make my dad... Or Mr. Piccolo..." Gohan said.

"Yeah!! Make Lim Piccolo!! Lim Piccolo is the coolest, way cooler than Krillin!" Cargo hollered, causing Dende to wince. "Lim Piccolo is cooler than Nail, even!"

Gohan laughed. "You're right Cargo, Mr. Piccolo is really cool. And this snowman seems tall enough to be them..."

"It's true that Lim Piccolo is brave and strong, but there is someone else I think is cooler..." Dende said shyly.

"Who's that?"

"You, Gohan."

Gohan and Dende both blushed and looked away from eachother.

"Lim Piccolo is really, really, really, really cool! They're the strongest Namekian ever!! I wanna be just like them when I grow up!" Cargo said, waving their arms about.

Gohan returned to the face of the snowman. He brushed the forehead smooth again, and rearranged the pebbles into a much more stern expression, but it was still missing a few things...

"Where are you going, Gohan?" Dende said, as Gohan flew over to a patch of rhododendron plants at the edge of the forest.

"Just a few finishing touches." Gohan replied, floating back with his spoils and arranging them on the snowman's head.

Dende smiled. With the additions of two long, pointed rhododendron leaves for ears, and a pair of twigs as antennae, the snowman was now a reasonable likeness of Piccolo. Cargo cheered.

"I wish Mr. Piccolo had been feeling well enough to come." Gohan said, his tone slightly wavering. "I hope they get better soon..."

Dende touched Gohan's arm.

"I'm sure they will. Even big, strong warriors get sick sometimes." they said softly.

"You're right, Dende... This is just like when my dad had the flu... Anyways, we've still got lots to do! Follow me!"

Gohan led the Namekian siblings into the woods, Dende still hovering above the ground, and Cargo occasionally dashing forwards to catch up to the older children. Icicles hanging from the branches above glittered in the afternoon sunlight, and only the crunching of Gohan and Cargo's footsteps broke the tranquil silence of the forest.

Partway through their walk, Gohan stopped suddenly, crouching and gesturing for Dende and Cargo to do the same. After a few moments of waiting, a small, fluffy white dinosaur passed in front of the trio, followed by several tiny, twittering babies who were little more than puffballs. The children waited a bit longer after the dinosaur mother had passed, then resumed their walk.

"We didn't have many wild animals left on Namek; the calamity wiped most of them out. There's so much life here on Earth, Gohan. It's... Amazing..." Dende whispered.

The remainder of the walk was uneventful, and soon enough the trio came out of the woods to another small clearing-- this time, a dark, frozen pond. Gohan turned back to smile at Dende and Cargo.

"Alright, this might look weird at first, but you're going to have to trust me. Don't freak out!" Gohan said.

Before Dende could ask him why, Gohan ran forward and leaped onto the pond's surface. He could hear Dende's yelp of astonishment as he landed, sliding over halfway across the pond.

"Gohan! How are you standing on that water? What's going on?" Dende cried.

"Yeah! Why did you slide!? Why aren't you all wet!?" Cargo joined in.

"It's okay! The water's frozen solid, all the way to the bottom, it's just slippery!" Gohan laughed. "I guess it never got cold enough on Namek for any of the water to freeze... Come on out, you two, it's fun!"

Gohan mock-skated back to the shore where Dende hovered and Cargo stood. Cargo's chubby face crinkled in determination, and they ran out onto the ice. Almost immediately, Cargo slipped and fell onto their belly, their momentum carrying them further out.

"Cargo!" Dende called in concern, but their younger sibling rose to their feet, starting forward again, apparently undeterred.

"Dende, you should really try this, it's a lot of fun!" Gohan said, from where he was now gracefully "skating" back and forth.

Dende hesitated, but lowered themself to the ground; using magic to thicken their shoes had paid off, they could no longer feel the cold wetness of the snow beneath their feet. They took a cautious step onto the ice, and then another. Dende watched Gohan, and tried to mime his movements, but it was harder than it looked. The slick feeling of the ice was foreign to Dende, they wobbled and wheeled out their arms as they unsteadily tried to "skate" towards Gohan. Gohan carefully slid over to Dende, and took their hands.

"Here, I'll help! It's kinda tough at first, I fell a lot when I was younger, when my dad would take me to the lake near our house." Gohan said, leading Dende along. "When I was three, I fell really hard on the ice and split my lip. I started crying and dad carried me back home; mom yelled at him, but she made us hot cocoa after."

"What's hot cocoa?" Dende asked.

"It's a hot drink made with milk and a plant called cacao. Or actually, stuff made from the beans from the cacao plant. It's a little hard to explain without a book. It's really yummy, especially after being out in the cold! I didn't bring any, though, 'cause I'm not sure if Namekians can have it."

Dende made a small humming noise, and the two continued to "skate" around the perimeter of the pond. It was much easier with someone else supporting them, and they were starting to get the hang of the movements. Cargo slipped haphazardly back and forth across the pond, half the time on their stomach, often crashing into snow drifts, howling with laughter the whole way.

The trio spent some time out on the ice this way. At a certain point Gohan detached from Dende, eager to show them and Cargo some skating tricks he knew now that Dende felt confident enough on their own. Gohan didn't know many tricks, but he could "skate" backwards, land small jumps, and pirouette a few times without stopping. Dende watched, impressed, but was happy to "skate" normally, without any tricks. After Gohan's performance, Cargo demanded that he and Dende view their special trick, which amounted to them hopping in place several times, then sliding on their belly into another snow drift. Gohan and Dende clapped and cheered regardless.

The shadows had grown long and the moon had risen, bone-bright in the still-blue winter sky by the time the children came ashore, parking themselves on two fallen logs at the edge of the pond. Gohan had removed his backpack, and pulled out a pair of glass containers-- one, a small, fat jar of a dark amber-colored fluid, the other a tall dark-blue bottle with a swing-top stopper. Dende watched as Gohan took the bottle in his hands, and felt as he raised his Ki to heat the bottle.

"What's that? Water?" Cargo asked. "I'm thirsty!"

"No, it's apple cider." Gohan said. "It's a kind of fruit juice, with spices in it, and it's really good hot."

He flipped open the bottle, and took a swig, then passed it to Cargo.

"Here. Try it, it's good!"

Cargo gripped the bottle with both hands, and looked into the top before sniffing the contents. They shakily raised it to drink, and Gohan moved to help them. Some spilled onto their face and neck wrap anyways.

Cargo's eyes lit up.

"Mmmm! It's good! It's good apple-cider-water!" They chirped, making grabby-hands for the bottle.

Gohan carefully helped Cargo drink more, then held out the bottle to Dende.

"How do you know this is safe, but not the hot cacao?" Dende asked.

"Oh! Well, I guess I don't know for sure," Gohan said nervously. "But, I made an educated guess. Most animals can't have cacao, it's poisonous to them, so I figured that might not be the safest option... Apples are pretty safe, except for the seeds, but those aren't in cider. And I've seen Mr. Piccolo eat apples before..."

"Lim Piccolo _eats_... Apples..." Dende said slowly, taking the bottle from Gohan.

Gohan busied himself heating the other container while Dende scented the apple cider. The steam was pleasant on Dende's cold nose, and the scent was interesting, somewhat spicy, but not unpleasant. They took a sip. They paused, then took another, longer sip. The cider was completely unlike anything Dende had ever tasted before, it almost overwhelmed their taste buds, but it was very, very good. Dende decided maybe there was something to the many odd drinks that they had seen humans consume.

Gohan, now satisfied with how hot he had made his jar, unlidded it and began pouring long lines of the viscous fluid within onto the fresh snow between the logs.

"This is maple syrup candy. The syrup is a sap from a tree called a maple, it's sweet like the apple cider. The snow cools down the hot syrup and hardens it into candy." He explained to puzzled Namekian siblings.

Gohan picked up three twigs from the ground and brushed them free of snow. He then twirled the twigs in the cooled, sticky syrup until each twig had a reasonable amount of candy stuck to them-- though one twig had about three times as much candy on it as the others. He handed a twig to Cargo, who snatched it eagerly-- as far as they were concerned, all of Gohan's ideas today had been Good and Fun.

"Gohan... You know that we don't eat." Dende said as Gohan offered them a twig. "And don't say that Lim Piccolo eats; they're... Different."

"I won't make you if you really don't want to, but I promise it's good! It's barely food, it melts in your mouth!" Gohan said.

Dende stared at Gohan, intending to stand their ground. Gohan stared back, and their eyes seemed to quiver. Dende looked away, but took the twig.

"I'll taste it." they said.

Gohan smiled, and tucked into his maple candy. Cargo, watching Gohan, crammed their twig into their mouth and ungraciously mimed Gohan's chewing movements. Dende crinkled their nose at the unpleasant wet noises Cargo's "eating" was creating, punctuated by little growls of pleasure. They lapped at the candy, and were again pleasantly surprised by how nice this odd substance tasted.

Gohan finished his candy quickly, and stabbed the used twig upright in the snow. Cargo had candy stuck in their teeth, making ineffectual chewing motions and licking their lips in vain attempts to dislodge it. Dende slowly lapped at their candy, looking at Gohan, the frozen pond, the snow-covered forest, and the now clear sky, which was just starting to color with sunset. It was a peaceful moment, even with the sounds of Cargo's struggles.

"It's getting pretty late, and I promised to have you two home before dark, but I hope you had fun today." Gohan said. "There's lots of other things to do on a snowy day, but I tried to stick with simple things since it's both your first times."

"What sorts of other things?" Dende asked, resting their head in their hand, and casually abandoning the rest of their candy in the snow.

"Stuff like... Snowball fights. Those are really fun, but they're much more fun with more people. And they can get really out of hand, especially if someone like my dad is part of them. And even though he's not here, I wasn't sure how well you guys'd react to, well, stuff getting thrown at you so soon after what happened on Namek..."

Dende nodded solemnly at this.

"When I grow up, I'm gonna be a warrior like Lim Piccolo and Lim Nail! I'm gonna get super strong, and no Friezas or anyone will be able to hurt our family again!" Cargo piped up, mouth finally free of candy and their little voice quivering with vindictiveness.

Dende looked tense, and Gohan thought quickly of how to change the subject.

"We also could have done a bonfire, if we were allowed out later. Maybe if Krillin had come with us, we could have done it. I know you two aren't used to the nights here yet, but maybe sitting by a nice warm fire, surrounded by friends would make it less scary?" He said.

"I don't know if I'll ever get used to night. But I think I'd be less scared if I was with you." Dende said.

"We could look at the stars, and I could show you the constellations. I've got a big book about them at home, and I think Aunt Bulma even has a telescope we could use! Actually, we could do that any night at Capsule Corp, if you wanted to! The stars aren't as bright in the city, but the city lights might make night less bad, too."

"That sounds nice, maybe Elder Moori could join us, too? Moori liked to collect space stuff from before the calamity, and tell us about the planets and the suns."

"I have to make sure I keep up with all my homework before I make plans though... My mom won't let me hang out if I'm behind with my studies... But there's so much stuff on Earth that you've never seen before that I wanna show you! Cargo too, if they want to come." Gohan gestured at Cargo, who seemed to be nodding off on their log.

Dende scooted over to Cargo, and supported their head.

"I wish you could have come to Namek before... Everything happened. When it was peaceful. I wish I could have showed you my favorite beaches, or some of the ruins from the old days..." Dende said wistfully.

"Me too, Dende. I'm just..." Gohan clenched his fists. "I'm so angry about what happened to you guys. Dad may have defeated Frieza, but your planet's gone, it's just not fair!"

"It's alright Gohan, it's over now. My people have survived calamities before, we'll find ways to move on past this one."

"I'll try and help you and the other Namekians any way I can. I promise."

"After you do all your homework." Dende said slyly.

"After I do all of my homework." Gohan said.

Gohan got up and went over to Cargo, gently lifting their tiny, sleepy form into his arms.

"It's time for us all to go home. Did you have fun, Cargo?" He asked.

Cargo softly "um-hummed", tucking their face into Gohan's chest. Gohan patted their head and looked up at Dende.

"What about you Dende? I'm sorry if the snow wasn't your favorite, we can go someplace warmer next time!" He said.

"Gohan, don't worry, I had a wonderful time. The snow really isn't so bad, just strange. Many things today were strange, but I had fun. Especially since I was doing them with you." Dende replied.

Gohan blushed.

"Let's really plan to do more stuff together later. I'll talk to my mom, and maybe she'll let you spend the night at my house?" Gohan said, as he lifted off from the ground.

"Or you could spend the night at Capsule Corp with us." Dende said, following Gohan.

"Or maybe when Mr. Piccolo gets better we could do something with them?"

"Or you could celebrate Porunga Day with us?"

"Or we could--"

"Or you could--"

"Or maybe--"

And such it continued, as the alien children flew off into the painted winter sunset.


End file.
